Prologue

Prologue – It’s perhaps not such a distant future story

(Translation by Lucifier Jantork)

It was a familiar scene to me.
To explain that scene, just one word would be enough. That is, “Ruins”.
Although I made my rounds in the neighboring buildings, I didn’t find even a single thing in its original form. Earlier, a lot of people used to live here. The stores and houses bustling with a sense of life have collapsed as a result of bombarding and bombing. And now, in place of the sounds of residents indulging in their daily affairs, only the sound of the gusty wind could be heard.
We were inside those ruins.
“Now then, it’s the beginning of the hunting. You guys, are you prepared for it!?”
Contrary to the tragic scene, the lively voice that resounded in the ruins belonged to Sena-sensei. Even among us, he is the leading guy with the most training under his belt, and his combat experience is also quite reliable.
“Move ahead, Kishimine! Today, we must again turn out to be the victors!”
A pleasant voice commanding dignity, struck my ears. Tendou Shinobu. Although she’s a girl, she is our leader on whom we rely to keep up our spirits.
“Roger, please leave that to me!”
I also reply reassuringly.
And, the battle quietly began. As a raider, my role is to act as a vanguard of my comrades, and run through the ruins ahead of them. I never look back. My reliable comrades guard my back. It’s fine for me to just look ahead.
I prepare to use the Assault Rifle that is generally seen with Sub Rangers. It’s just like another dear part of me that I’ve gotten accustomed to using. As long as I’ve this rifle, I can exchange shots even with a sniper lying in wait in some corner of the battlefield.
Soon, we approached the street corner. It’s a dangerous place. This isn’t the first time we’re fighting on this battlefield. We knew that the side facing this street corner is an “ideal ambush point”.
But, there was no need to stop. . Sena-sensei, who was waiting in the rear, calls out to us.
“I’m going to throw!”
From behind me, something like a spherical ball was thrown into the air.
The thing thrown by Sena-sansei is a hand grenade. Without missing its aim, the hand grenade falls in the street corner, and explodes.
It spreads a fierce, deadly storm.
The moment the explosion stopped, I plunged into the side facing the street corner.
“I made it.”
I confirm the presence of enemies. They’re the soldiers of enemy nation, dressed in camouflaged clothes. There are three of them. Hiding in the shade of the shelter, they’re lying in wait for a typical ambush. Probably the enemies were also expecting an attack from our side, since they didn’t look wounded by the hand grenade.
But on a battlefield, small actions decide everything. As a result of escaping from the hand grenade, they wasted a little bit time to spot me and pull the trigger.
That was enough for me.
Without a moments delay, I prepare my assault rifle. Instantly I focus the “iron sight” on the enemy’s head, and pull the trigger.
The bullet travelling with blinding speed, accurately went through the enemy’s head.
One after another, I pointed the gun point at the remaining two enemies, and fired at them. Even if they’re wearing some sort of armour, it can’t protect them from the rapid-fire of my Assault Rifle. Instantly, they end up as new corpses. Out of the three of us, Tendou, who was covering my back, took a step ahead. It hasn’t been even 3 seconds since Sena-sensei threw the hand grenade.
“Alright, the actual thing starts from here. Kishimine, robustly move ahead!”
I hear Tendou’s voice coming from behind me. That voice probably served as adrenalin for me, and I felt my courage increasing. Unintentionally, I feel the urge to turn around and look at her beautiful face. But, that’s not something I could afford. If I don’t undergo instant recovery at the last moment following the panic inciting sound of gunshots, I’ll die instantly. It’s the battlefield I’ve gotten used to play.
We kept the Trinity stance, and continued our advance. This place is enemy territory. It won’t be strange even if there’re enemies hidden in some more places.
It’s just that we were strong.
“To attract their attention, I’ll handle the neutralization fire! Go inside their perimeter, Kishimine!”
The usually aggressive Sena-sensei, is calm on the battlefield. And contrary to sensei,
“Leave your back to me! I’ll make those fucking bastards lick your asshole!”
When the battle gets overheated, Tendou, who usually maintains a dignified speech and conduct, becomes the extreme opposite of her usual self.
“Roger, I’m going ahead!”
Under their protection I conduct the raid, and the duo behind me attack the encountered enemies.
My pride is the quick and accurate “aiming”, integrated with love and bullet. That sort of aiming is surely what Sena-sensei call “unity of rider and horse”. When the enemies attack from the front, those average opponents aren’t capable of defeating us.
But then, this place is enemy territory. The enemies wouldn’t always attack from the front. It’s obviously possible that the enemies, who were lying dormant in the hiding like Ninjas, could sneak around to our back.
However, to attack the three of us from the back would mean death. That’s because, we’re originally a team of four people.
The duty of assaulting and annihilating is carried out by our trio, and somewhere on this vast battlefield, there is a caterpillar-like ambush sniper.
Her duty is to deal with the enemy snipers. And so, the enemies that sneaked around to our back, gets their head or chest shot by heavy caliber bullets.
It’s because she’s there, that we could run about the battlefield without any worries. We guys fighting on the front line, naturally stand out on this battlefield. But, she’s the one with the lengthiest history of combat experience among us, and has taught us ways to survive on a battlefield.
“Team Play, Victory and Defeat. Such things are fine with me. I simply want to attack people!”
That’s her catch phrase. They, no, these girls, who don’t have anything like a shooter ethics, keep attacking people as if they’re simply breathing.
Their tendency during a war situation was already evident. Because of our iron wall formation, the enemies are at their wits end. Getting shot one by one, they’re losing their life in vain.
Before long, I lost the count of the defeated enemies.
The end of the battle appeared in sight.
“The Game is over~! Izunomiya Academy’s Modern Games club Team, you’ve achieved an overwhelming victory!”
The voice of a girl that didn’t belong to the battlefield, resounded, and I blacked out.
The boy called Kishimine Kengo, suddenly regained his consciousness.
After repeating the action of closing and opening his eyes for a short while, he gradually recognizes the place he is at the moment.
The things in front of his eyes are, the Television Monitor of the Game Machine and the figure of the on duty hostess in a cute cosplay, who is a High School Girl’s voice actress. He is holding a game console in his hands. The place is also nothing like a battlefield. It’s an event assembly hall in Akihabara, Tokyo.
“You have become a full on regular customer of JGBC (abbreviation of ‘Japan Game Battle Championship’.). Izunomiya Game Club Team, you’ve cleared the first round with an overwhelming score!”
(I see. We won, huh.)
The girl’s lovely voice makes us finally acknowledge our victory.
On the Gigantic screen in the centre of the assembly hall, the result of the “FPS Game” —– “Flashy health recovery, Panicky blow and Swift death Game,” as Kishimine was taught —— that was being played until just a few minutes ago was being displayed. The number of our dead enemies was several tens of times that of the other team. On the other hand, the number of our friendly casualty was zero. In short, a perfect game. In FPS, it’s rare to see this much of a one-sided game take place. The opponent team is regretting their loss, but they could only curse their bad luck of facing us in the first round battle.
When he casually turned around, he found the crowd of participants all over the assembly hall, gathering around him. They were deeply moved by the magnificent gameplay of Kishimine and Co., and were cheering aloud for them. Some were booing, saying that their own style is more skillful.
There was a time when he used to get nervous because of this scene. However, it’s different now.
(I’ve completely grown used to seeing this scenery!)
The Kishimine from some time ago never did anything like appearing in public. He always liked to remain alone. He never entered a club, or stopped over at someplace with someone after school while returning back to his home. What’s more, with the exception of his relatives, he never talked with the opposite sex.
(It’s time to go……)
He moves his eyes side to side. At that place, there are three of his reassuring comrades. Two of them are girls. Furthermore, these “the female high-school students who could even make a flower blush” called girls, are probably the reason for the increase in the booing sound.
These days, Kishimine was always together with girls. Seeing his three years of high school life, he never expected to spend such days.
However, Kishimine Kengo often thinks like this nowadays.
“Putting this and that aside, it isn’t bad to spend such days.”